Russia has dismissed accusations that its agents were behind the Salisbury chemical weapons attack with a mixture of threats, bad-taste jokes and misinformation, including the idea it is all an anti-Russian conspiracy.

Meanwhile, British police have been doing their job, trying to find out who attempted to murder former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and who was responsible for the death of Dawn Sturgess and poisoning of her partner Charlie Rowley with the same nerve agent, Novichok, in nearby Amesbury.

Now detectives have reportedly identified several suspects who they believe to be Russian, in news that will only ramp up tensions with Moscow.

But anyone taken in by the idea the UK was behind the poisoning in a bizarre attempt to discredit the Kremlin only needs to look at the ongoing chaos at Westminster to realise the Government is in no shape to plot such a grandiose scheme, even if it wanted to be.

Britain is being dragged, against its will, into a deepening diplomatic crisis with Russia by evidence and truth, while the Kremlin responds with obfuscation.